1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to soldering tools in general and more particularly to a new configuration for such a tool incorporating a means of feeding the wire solder to the heated tip of the tool and dispensing melted solder therefrom.
2. General Background
Soldering tools come in a variety of shapes and sizes from small hand-held "pencil" types to larger "gun" types and beyond. With each of these devices, generally, the heated soldering tool is held in one hand while the wire solder is held against the heated tip of the tool by the other hand. Consequently, both hands are required to operate the tool leaving no hands free for aligning or supporting the item to be soldered. Thus, it is likely that the end result will be a poor solder joint.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,545 issued to Riordan is an effort to address this deficiency. It discloses a pencil type soldering iron that incorporates external hollow tube 50 which directs wire solder 44 to heated tip 18. This wire solder is urged forward by the rotation of wheel 72. Unfortunately, this configuration still requires two hands for operation, one to hold the soldering tool and the other to rotate wheel 72. Additionally, external hollow tube 50 can be inadvertently crimped or bent such that solder 44 is no longer able to pass therethrough. Alternatively, hollow tube 50 can be moved or pushed out of alignment with respect to tip 18 thereby rendering the tool useless.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,796,856 issued to Wei-Cheng discloses a gun type soldering iron in which the wire solder initially extends through the gun handle before passing through an exterior tube on its journey to the heated tip. Again, this external tube is subject to being crimped or bent beyond use thereby also rendering it useless. Additionally, while the wire solder is guided within the handle of the soldering iron, there is no continuous channel therein which would prevent any undesirable misalignment from occurring.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,688 issued to Cheng also discloses a pencil-type soldering tool with an external wire solder feed line similar to that described above. Again, should this feed line become bent or crimped, due to being exposed, its function will be lost. Additionally, melted solder is only dispensed when the wire solder is urged against the heated tip, thus, concentration upon this step must take place while also attempting to secure the to-be-soldered part in place.
It is thus an object of this invention to provide a means of one-handed operation of the soldering tool. Another object of this invention is to provide a soldering tool that can supply melted solder on demand without requiring a second hand to bring the wire solder in close proximity to the heated tip. A further object of the present invention is to provide a newly designed soldering tip which can catch and store liquid or melted solder until needed. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a means of dispensing melted solder without also requiring the need to constantly urge solid wire solder against the heated tip of the soldering iron. These and other objects and advantages will become obvious upon further investigation.